Help! 7 month old won't sleep!

[beamishboy]

Hi!

I'm a first time mom and my 7 month old son refuses to go to sleep. He used to nurse to sleep, or would fall asleep by rocking, but neither of these techniques work anymore.

Last week I tried the CIO method, (when he was exhausted) which ended in him screaming hysterically for 45 minutes without calming down or even closing his eyes a bit.

I tried again tonight, but I spoke to him and tried to calm him down before he reached hysteria. It took an hour and a half, and he wake up 45 minutes later.

He wakes up once after he's been put down for the night, and then once during the night (when, I'm ashamed to admit, I take him to bed with me and nurse him).

Its not working anymore!! Please help! I'm desperate! I don't want him to cry but I don't know what else to do!

When you tried "CIO" do you mean that you left him alone and crying for 45 mins? Or did you try the "controlled crying" approach of going back in but with increasingly longer gaps in between?

I hope that it was the latter and not the former . Although I am not a fan of the controlled crying approach either as there are gentler ways of helping your baby sleep.

Waking twice in the night is normal for a 7 month old that is breastfed. You might find that this reduces as he gets older, which is what happened with my ds (now 9 months and sleeping through).

And why is it shameful to take your baby into bed with you if it suits you? Assuming you are following co-sleeping safety guidelines then there is no need to feel that this is wrong!

Often people recommend the No Cry Sleep Solution as a gentler method of sleep training - I haven't used it myself but I understand it has a variety of approaches that you can pick and choose from.

I do think that 7 to 9 months can be a tricky age for sleep, as they can be teething, having digestive issues due to weaning or experiencing separation anxiety. I even think my ds started to have bad dreams at this age! So you might find he begins to settle down a bit as he gets a little bit older.

Same here. Usual routine is bed at 7. Wakes once before 12 and twice at least between 12+7

I try very hard to put her back in her cot after the first and second feed and then bring her I'm with me after the last feed. More often than not she is in with me from the second feed though. Half the time I barely wake up.

Saying that last night she did 7-3-5-8 which is amazing and that's the longest she has ever slept ever. Unfortunately I was waiting for her convinced it would be any second now from 12 until half one so I didn't benefit

Best thing you can do is to try and teach your baby to self settle. I did this with DD at 7mo cos she was such a terrible sleeper.

At bedtime I fed her but made sure she was still awake when I put her down in her cot then I sat with her stroking her back gently and we also used some white noise. I stayed until she was calm and then left the room and returned to pat her back if she cried.

Once she got used to this routine I stopped patting and just held my hand on her back until she was calm. Then after a few nights of this I was able to just put her down and leave her to it.

Very gentle technique and once she had learned to fall asleep by herself she could then resettle and sleep through the night. The best thing is to think of a plan then stick to it for at least a few nights to see how it suits your child.

Good luck!